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Talking Heads Turn Nice, Hillary Turns on Obamaniacs and Conservatives Look for a Veep To Turn To

Good morning! You might think after last night's long Potomac Primary wrap-up there would be nothing else left to pay attention to, but you'd be wrong. It's not just the cable news networks that are slaves to the 24 hour news cycles, it's your candidates—and me besides!

Speaking of the cable news networks, all eyes appear to be on MSNBC these days, and not just because they were the only station with wall-to-wall coverage of last night's primaries. After Chris Matthews opined that Hillary Clinton's political successes were due to Bill's infidelities and David Schuster said he felt like Chelsea was being "pimped out," all eyes are on the boys' club at MSNBC and what they'll say next. But, apparently, what they'll say next involves things like "they are all nice friends." Not to be outdone in the quest for sexism, though, New York Times writer Alessandra Stanley would like us all to know that blonde women are all interchangeable: "Even Fox News has many more female anchors, though so many are cookie-cutter blondes that viewers cannot be blamed for thinking it's one anchor working multiple shifts." I guess it's time to go brunette.

In the wake of the Potomac Primary, though, Barack Obama has pulled ahead of Clinton in the overall race for delegates for the first time, even counting her superdelegate lead. MSNBC reported that Obama has also taken the lead in the popular vote, even if the votes in Michigan and Florida are counted. But, as I noted yesterday, Clinton continues to find reasons to explain away her losses and explain why she would win in the general election, including the predominance of African-American voters and Republicans in states that Obama has won. Nonetheless, a growing string of losses makes that line of reasoning less and less valid and more and more insulting to the voters in those states that are voting for Obama, and insulting the very people you want voting for you in November doesn't seem like a great strategy to me.

And, finally, now that McCain has more or less mathematically ensured his nomination, all eyes turn to the VP slot on the Republican ticket. There's a big long list of "acceptable" conservative options that the conservatives who never liked McCain are floating, including Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford and Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty (who was unfortunately in office when the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis collapsed). The question, though, is whether McCain is going to want to play nice with the very people (like former challenger Mitt Romney) who counted him out, talked him down and threatened to vote for Hillary instead. The Maverick McCain would likely say "no, no, no" but, as he learned in 2000, it's hard to be a maverick and be a standard-bearer.

So, is the Democratic race keeping you on the edge of your seat? Are the commentators annoying you more than the candidates? And who do you think will be playing second banana come the summer? Come speculate in the comments!